In recent times, the rise of retail theft has increased significantly particularly in expensive retail items such as cameras, video cameras and recorders and the like. For this reason, items of that type have been placed in displays where access to the product is limited.
This security display policy is not a problem for persons who know what they want to purchase and are merely looking for the best bargain and may wish to compare features on various models. Those persons can find a retail clerk and obtain access to the product, perhaps even with some instructions from the clerk. However, a significant portion of retail establishment sales are based upon impulse purchases, or at the least, by stimulating latent desires or needs by an attractive and effective display. Impulse sales are not likely to take place with any frequency for items costing up to one thousand dollars or more unless the potential customer can pick up the device, feel, touch and otherwise examine it and begin to form an image in his or her mind where the retail item would be in use.
The alternative, leaving the item on a display and unattended, is totally unacceptable in todays retail environment. Theft is a significant problem and margins of profit do not permit the loss of any significant number of expensive items such as cameras and the like. The ideal situation, with customer access to the product and maximum security has heretofore only been possible when a sales clerk is physically present at the display. Even then, if the clerk is distracted by one customer, other customers are then in a position of examining unattended merchandise. At the least, that is an unnecessary temptation.
There have been methods attempted to display and secure retail items. For example, U.S. Pat. 4,598,827, describes a mechanical security device for clothing in which a plurality of cables are attached at one end to individual items of merchandise, such as clothing, and at the other end to a security mechanism. Systems described in this patent are primarily intended for garment display and security. The invention permits a person to select a garment from a rack of clothing, try on the garment and reach the point of a decision to purchase a specific garment from the rack. This system has been successful in increasing so-called impulse sales for clothing. This security system has not been found to be effective for use with cameras and video equipment, however, because no method for attaching an individual cable to the camera and the like has been proposed which does not require alteration of the camera. Moreover, while this system is effective for garments which hang on hangers, it does not provide any method for displaying cameras or fragile equipment in an attractive manner.
Another system which has been found to be effective for both security and display of clothing is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,620,182. In this system, an alarm mechanism is employed for signalling a closed circuit condition, such as when the cable which mechanically connects the retail item to the security device is cut. Again, this system has been admirably effective in securing garments and retail items which already have a method for displaying them, but does not provide for any method of displaying products.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a display and security system for objects such as cameras, video cameras, video recorders and other such objects.
Another object of this invention is to provide a display and security system for objects which are best marketed by being held in the hand of the potential customer and which are either too expensive or too delicate to be left on a counter top.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a security system which is simple and easy to attach to cameras and other similar equipment without modifying the product in any way.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a security system in which the security portion is attached to cameras and the like in a manner which is easily removed by the store salesperson but which denies removal by customers and other casual observers. Other objects will appear hereinafter.